Why Was Life Given To Us?

[Vaishnavi]

I would love to know what your personal development journey has taught you so far about life and your views as to why life was really given to us? Is there some special purpose behind it or simply to provide us with an "experience"

And also who gave us life?

[Electron]

Life wasn't given to you because there is no "YOU". Life is just a phenomenon not isolated from any other phenomenon in any way. To study it, it needs to be seen in isolation from other things and a separate entity but it actually exists in oneness with everything else. There is this one giant process of cause and effect which you can call the universe and everything that appears in it by virtue of cause and effect isn't the end result, nor it has any special meaning, the universe isn't going anywhere, it's just doing its usual cause and effect shit and various new kinds of things are popping up.

Now, it is rather tragedic that we have in our ignorance taken the "self" for granted and as something real and rigid, creating boundaries and fences in our own experiences which obscure our perception and disable us to see the underlying unity. 

Now did the universe give you birth for a reason? Yes, because for the appropriate function of cause and effect according to the so-called laws of the universe, it was necessary for the processes to occur exactly in a way so as to give rise to "your" body structure. So you can also say that you were given birth because you were needed by the universe to function properly .  Also then, the reason "You" are alive is because the universe needs you right now in order to be stable. If i were to remove you against the universe's will (Lets say), the whole universe would become unstable (A hypothesis), all the star systems, galaxies, planets will go nuts and who knows what would happen. That's how important you are !!!!

The things that you were meant to do are things that you did and the things that you will do in future will be the things that you were meant to do. So whatever you are, whatever you do, that's what's meant for you. 

Here are some lines from the movie " The Last Samurai" :

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?

Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Electron

[FindingPeace]

I've contemplated the 'meaning of life' for years now. But I've come to the realisation that 'life' isn't really a 'thing' at all. It seems like it to us because we live in awe of the reality around us, constantly questioning the hows and whys of everything. But really, what is life? Was is 'given' to us?

A living being is really just a complex set of processes occurring. Not unlike many other processes in the universe. Is the planet alive? It could look like it from the outside. The mechanics of the universe could be interpreted as a form of 'life'. Rather than pondering life I find myself pondering consciousness instead. And how consciousness relates to the living being.

1 hour ago, Vaishnavi said:

Is there some special purpose behind it

There are no purposes in reality. It just is. And life-forms are no more special than any other 'feature' or reality. It is reality itself that is a means and an end in itself. It's its own purpose.

1 hour ago, Vaishnavi said:

And also who gave us life?

Noone. In fact life is a concept that we atribute to a feature of reality. In that sense we gave it to us. Reality gave 'you' life. Just like it manifested stars, galaxies, atoms and matter. Which, incidentally, are all concepts and labels that we project on to reality, just as we do with life.

I find it insteresting how the human species has become so preoccupied with understanding the 'meaning' of life. We are the only species to do so (we can assume). I wonder how people would live differently if they completely dropped the notion that life is a 'thing', that it's miraculous and 'special', and instead just lived it regardless.

Interesting topic.

[kurt]

1 hour ago, Electron said:

Life wasn't given to you because there is no "YOU". Life is just a phenomenon not isolated from any other phenomenon in any way. To study it, it needs to be seen in isolation from other things and a separate entity but it actually exists in oneness with everything else. There is this one giant process of cause and effect which you can call the universe and everything that appears in it by virtue of cause and effect isn't the end result, nor it has any special meaning, the universe isn't going anywhere, it's just doing its usual cause and effect shit and various new kinds of things are popping up.

Now, it is rather tragedic that we have in our ignorance taken the "self" for granted and as something real and rigid, creating boundaries and fences in our own experiences which obscure our perception and disable us to see the underlying unity. 

Now did the universe give you birth for a reason? Yes, because for the appropriate function of cause and effect according to the so-called laws of the universe, it was necessary for the processes to occur exactly in a way so as to give rise to "your" body structure. So you can also say that you were given birth because you were needed by the universe to function properly .  Also then, the reason "You" are alive is because the universe needs you right now in order to be stable. If i were to remove you against the universe's will (Lets say), the whole universe would become unstable (A hypothesis), all the star systems, galaxies, planets will go nuts and who knows what would happen. That's how important you are !!!!

The things that you were meant to do are things that you did and the things that you will do in future will be the things that you were meant to do. So whatever you are, whatever you do, that's what's meant for you. 

Here are some lines from the movie " The Last Samurai" :

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?

Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

 

Thank you

[Dodo]

I would ask Leo ♌ since he made us :D

But anyway ipersonally think we are here in order to raise the vibration of the planet. Make it a better place to be for the ones after us. 

My journey has led me to the realisation that we cannot stop experiencing however, so after we die we will move on. Who knows where and in which dimension etc. We are timeless and infinite, just like Leo. But we have decided to drop by on this planet because we saw others suffering and thought we can help. Or we saw them having fun/dancing and thought we wanted some of that. 

Mostly we wanted to breathe, which allows us to accept situations and move on. Allows us to integrate our emotions, if we can breathe properly. I absolutely love my diaphragm.

Life is precious even if we are infinite, because it gives us lessons we cannot learn otherwise.

Peace

Edited September 28, 2016 by Dodoster

[Orange]

I'm also struggling with this question so much. What was before you and I were alive? Ive always imagined the place before life was just an ' empty black space' but that is the brain trying to understand, to hold on to something, it's not true.. Also, when you are a new born you are not alive in the same way you are alive when you're older. Do you have consciousness when you are a new born? Because from what I understand, I can only say I am experiencing life if I am aware of it..and since I have no memory of my new born days, it's like I was not alive back then. I don't know. You need to define what life is first. What does it mean to be alive? What is alive and what is not?

[kurt]

4 minutes ago, Orange said:

What was before you and I were alive? 

You were before you were alive.

 

5 minutes ago, Orange said:

Also, when you are a new born you are not alive in the same way you are alive when you're older.

No, the body is known to you, it's an object of your knowing, so it can't be you.

The body changes all the time, think about it: Is your body the same body you had when you were a child? The obvious answer is no, it has changed, so in this sense it is unreal. But the I that has known your body through the lifespan has never changed, knowing can never not be there, so it is real. You are real. From moment to moment in your own experience you can verify that knowing is continuous, yet the objects you know are not, they come, stay a while and dissapear in you.

8 minutes ago, Orange said:

Do you have consciousness when you are a new born? Because from what I understand, I can only say I am experiencing life if I am aware of it..and since I have no memory of my new born days, it's like I was not alive back then

Your body and mind and memory don't "have" consciousness, because these are inert matter, meaning not sentient. You, consciousness had a new born body. You don't have to remember it because memory is just another object known to you. If you can see memory now and you know that it's an object known to you, then we can infer that you saw yourself back then as a new born. Logically, how can you refute this? 

[Orange]

24 minutes ago, kurt said:

You were before you were alive.

 

No, the body is known to you, it's an object of your knowing, so it can't be you.

The body changes all the time, think about it: Is your body the same body you had when you were a child? The obvious answer is no, it has changed, so in this sense it is unreal. But the I that has known your body through the lifespan has never changed, knowing can never not be there, so it is real. You are real. From moment to moment in your own experience you can verify that knowing is continuous, yet the objects you know are not, they come, stay a while and dissapear in you.

Your body and mind and memory don't "have" consciousness, because these are inert matter, meaning not sentient. You, consciousness had a new born body. You don't have to remember it because memory is just another object known to you. If you can see memory now and you know that it's an object known to you, then we can infer that you saw yourself back then as a new born. Logically, how can you refute this? 

Yes good points. So that raises the question : who/ what are you? 

Okay I just read your answer again and actually you say you= consciousness. .but then where does consciousness come from ? 

why was there no consciousness before you or I were alive? but then you said 'you were before you were alive' > what does it mean exactly? 

was there consciousness before being alive? 

so many questions  

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Orange

[kurt]

35 minutes ago, Orange said:

Yes good points. So that raises the question : who/ what are you? 

Okay I just read your answer again and actually you say you= consciousness. .but then where does consciousness come from ? 

why was there no consciousness before you or I were alive? but then you said 'you were before you were alive' > what does it mean exactly? 

was there consciousness before being alive? 

so many questions  

 

"Before" is just a word, difficult to express infinity, but we can infer infinity by looking at what we know - objects.

OK, think about it.  For the sake of this let's just take you to be this person.  When I say you, I mean you, the person, body, mind.

You came into existence didn't you? You were born, you grow and you know by inference and experiences of the nature of the object world that you will die.  

Is this true?  Yeah, 'course it is!

So this is the definition of objects.  Look closely and all you will find is objects, changing all the time.  But what is the one constant in amongst all of this?  

Consciousness isn't actually "real" either (as an object), but there is an "aspect" (for want of a better word) that is constant in among all this change.  That aspect is "knowing".  

If there was no knowing, how could there be a known?

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by kurt

[kurt]

27 minutes ago, John Flores said:

@Orange the concept of limited conciousness mind boggles me. If we are conciousness, why do we naturally experience a sense of center and separation?

 

who/what is performing this magic trick?

Do you meditate?  When you meditate you know by inference that despite all the changing objects there is only one constant, the "seer".

During meditation you can see that when an experience happens the ego pops up and claims the experience as

"I am feeling ______

"I am thinking_____

But close inspection reveals this process to you, so it cannot be "you".  

I think, yet... I AM.

It's the "I" watching the "I" that claims possession of the apparent reflection that consciousness projects

 

[kurt]

3 minutes ago, John Flores said:

Lets stop being esoteric, no one is goi g to attack you for saying these things here

 

personal experience is perceiving a sense of self...done, stop complicating it 

Are you drunk john?

[kurt]

Just now, John Flores said:

@kurt Kurt, you're agitating me because you think you know me. Stop it...you're a scam 

No wonder youre depressed. 

[kurt]

Just now, John Flores said:

@kurt Kurt, listen to yourself, you are making judgments every second. You're not enlightened. 

Never claimed i was  Thats in your head, like your little depressive world.  

 

[Orange]

 

Quote

During meditation you can see that when an experience happens the ego pops up and claims the experience as

"I am feeling ______

"I am thinking_____

But close inspection reveals this process to you, so it cannot be "you".  

I think, yet... I AM.

It's the "I" watching the "I" that claims possession of the apparent reflection that consciousness projects

 

yes, so' I' is aware that' I' is experiencing life, ... so, what is the 'I' that is looking at 'I' who experiences life? 

 

omg all of this is so abstract it hurts my brain lol

Edited September 28, 2016 by Orange

[FindingPeace]

1 hour ago, Orange said:

why was there no consciousness before you or I were alive?

You don't know that there wan't consciousness. There was nothing to 'fill' the conscious-awareness, just like there isn't whilst you're in deep sleep. But is the 'container' called 'consciousness' still there even when there is nothing to be conscious of? Curious...

 

[kurt]

@Orange 

That's where it stops.  Knowing, you dont need to regress the I back to infinity, people have tried that and they go insane, not enlightened lol.

One of the reasons we need scripture and it be unfolded to us by a competent teacher.

Why don't you consider learning meditation?  It will help you to experience this for yourself, take a look at what is going on there. But like I say, it goes hand in had with the scripts, because you can't figure it out by yourself, its all logic.

[FindingPeace]

Perhaps consciousness isn't a 'thing' at all. Or perhaps it is everything. Maybe there's more to reality than literally meets the eye. Maybe consciousness is nothing at all, or maybe it is reality itself. We shall never know..

[kurt]

18 minutes ago, Orange said:

 

yes, so' I' is aware that' I' is experiencing life, ... so, what is the 'I' that is looking at 'I' who experiences life? 

 

omg all of this is so abstract it hurts my brain lol

Also, the I is not experiencing life, look at experience, it is also an object.  Consciousness is not really an "I" or an I thought, its easier to get a sense of it through pondering objects, what is knowing of objects?  A rock existed before people, rock "knowledge" must have come from somewhere, and the knowing of rocks.  That is what the Eastern Traditions mean by consciousness. Consciousness is not local to humans or animals, but humans are the only ones who can become enlightened because we have the capacity to think about it.

 

[WaveInTheOcean]

"Why Was Life Given To Me?" asks the student.

The teacher replies: "Given to who?"

Student: "Me?!"

Teacher: "Go figure out who that "me" is, then come back"

Student takes 5-MeO, figures out that what he thought him self of  was illusionary, and that what he really is, is existence/reality/awareness/absolute infinity/God. He then realises that meaning ("why why why") is created by the logical ego-mind (human-made) and that from God's (truth-perspective) 'meaning' does not exist but only being.

[Orange]

18 hours ago, kurt said:

 

Why don't you consider learning meditation?  It will help you to experience this for yourself, take a look at what is going on there. But like I say, it goes hand in had with the scripts, because you can't figure it out by yourself, its all logic.

yes, i am doing some of that. And sorry but i didn't really understand the rock story  what are you trying to say exactly?